James I. he published in 1624 The Description and Use of His Majestie’s Dials in Whitehall Garden, the only one of his works which has not been reprinted. He introduced the words cosine and cotangent, and he suggested to Henry Briggs, his friend and colleague, the use of the arithmetical complement (see Brigg’s Arithmetica Logarithmica, cap. xv.). His practical inventions are briefly noticed below:
Gunter’s Chain, the chain in common use for surveying, is 22 yds. long and is divided into 100 links. Its usefulness arises from its decimal or centesimal division, and the fact that 10 square chains make an acre.
Gunter’s Line, a logarithmic line, usually laid down upon scales, sectors, &c. It is also called the line of lines and the line of numbers, being only the logarithms graduated upon a ruler, which therefore serves to solve problems instrumentally in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically.
Gunter’s Quadrant, an instrument made of wood, brass or other substance, containing a kind of stereographic projection of the sphere on the plane of the equinoctial, the eye being supposed to be placed in one of the poles, so that the tropic, ecliptic, and horizon form the arcs of circles, but the hour circles are other curves, drawn by means of several altitudes of the sun for some particular latitude every year. This instrument is used to find the hour of the day, the sun’s azimuth, &c., and other common problems of the sphere or globe, and also to take the altitude of an object in degrees.
Gunter’s Scale (generally called by seamen the Gunter) is a large plane scale, usually 2 ft. long by about 112 in. broad, and engraved with various lines of numbers. On one side are placed the natural lines (as the line of chords, the line of sines, tangents, rhumbs, &c.), and on the other side the corresponding artificial or logarithmic ones. By means of this instrument questions in navigation, trigonometry, &c., are solved with the aid of a pair of compasses.
GÜNTHER, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1695–1723), German poet,
was born at Striegau in Lower Silesia on the 8th of April 1695.
After attending the gymnasium at Schweidnitz, he was sent in
1715 by his father, a country doctor, to study medicine at
Wittenberg; but he was idle and dissipated, had no taste for the
profession chosen for him, and came to a complete rupture with
his family. In 1717 he went to Leipzig, where he was befriended
by J. B. Mencke (1674–1732), who recognized his genius; and
there he published a poem on the peace of Passarowitz (concluded
between the German emperor and the Porte in 1718) which
acquired him reputation. A recommendation from Mencke to
Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony, king of Poland, proved worse
than useless, as Günther appeared at the audience drunk. From
that time he led an unsettled and dissipated life, sinking ever
deeper into the slough of misery, until he died at Jena on the
15th of March 1723, when only in his 28th year. Goethe pronounces
Günther to have been a poet in the fullest sense of the
term. His lyric poems as a whole give evidence of deep and
lively sensibility, fine imagination, clever wit, and a true ear for
melody and rhythm; but an air of cynicism is more or less
present in most of them, and dull or vulgar witticisms are not
infrequently found side by side with the purest inspirations of
his genius.
Günther’s collected poems were published in four volumes (Breslau, 1723–1735). They are also included in vol. vi. of Tittmann’s Deutsche Dichter des 17ten Jahrh. (Leipzig, 1874), and vol. xxxviii. of Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur (1883). A pretended autobiography of Günther appeared at Schweidnitz in 1732, and a life of him by Siebrand at Leipzig in 1738. See Hoffmann von Fallersleben, J. Ch. Günther (Breslau, 1833); O. Roquette, Leben und Dichten J. Ch. Günthers (Stuttgart, 1860); M. Kalbeck, Neue Beiträge zur Biographie des Dichters C. Günther (Breslau, 1879).
GÜNTHER OF SCHWARZBURG (1304–1349), German king, was
a descendant of the counts of Schwarzburg and the younger son
of Henry VII., count of Blankenburg. He distinguished himself
as a soldier, and rendered good service to the emperor Louis IV.,
on whose death in 1347 he was offered the German throne, after
it had been refused by Edward III., king of England. He was
elected German king at Frankfort on the 30th of January 1349
by four of the electors, who were partisans of the house of Wittelsbach
and opponents of Charles of Luxemburg, afterwards the
emperor Charles IV. Charles, however, won over many of
Günther’s adherents, defeated him at Eltville, and Günther, who
was now seriously ill, renounced his claims for the sum of 20,000
marks of silver. He died three weeks afterwards at Frankfort,
and was buried in the cathedral of that city, where a statue was
erected to his memory in 1352.
See Graf L. Ütterodt zu Scharffenberg, Günther, Graf von Schwarzburg, erwählter deutscher König (Leipzig, 1862); and K. Janson, Das Königtum Günthers von Schwarzburg (Leipzig, 1880).
GUNTRAM, or Gontran (561–592), king of Burgundy, was one
of the sons of Clotaire I. On the death of his father (561) he
and his three brothers divided the Frankish realm between them,
Guntram receiving as his share the valleys of the Saône and
Rhone, together with Berry and the town of Orleans, which he
made his capital. On the death of Charibert (567), he further
obtained the civitates of Saintes, Angoulême and Périgueux.
During the civil war which broke out between the kings of
Neustria and Austrasia, his policy was to try to maintain a state of
equilibrium. After the assassination of Sigebert (575), he took
the youthful Childebert II. under his protection, and, thanks to
his assistance against the intrigues of the great lords, the latter
was able to maintain his position in Austrasia. After the death
of Chilperic (584) he protected the young Clotaire II. in the same
way, and prevented Childebert from seizing his dominions. His
course was rendered easier by the fact that his own sons had
died; consequently, having an inheritance at his disposal, he
was able to offer it to whichever of his nephews he wished. The
danger to the Frankish realm caused by the expedition of
Gundobald (585), and the anxiety which was caused him by the
revolts of the great lords in Austrasia finally decided him in favour
of Childebert. He adopted him as his son, and recognized him as
his heir at the treaty of Andelot (587); he also helped him to
crush the great lords, especially Ursion and Berthefried, who were
conquered in la Woëvre. From this time on he ceased to play a
prominent part in the affairs of Austrasia. He died in 592, and
Childebert received his inheritance without opposition. Gregory
of Tours is very indulgent to Guntram, who showed himself on
occasions generous towards the church; he almost always calls
him “good king Guntram,” and in his writings are to be found
such phrases as “good king Guntram took as his servant a concubine
Veneranda” (iv. 25); but Guntram was really no better
than the other kings of his age; he was cruel and licentious,
putting his cubicularius Condo to death, for instance, because he
was suspected of having killed a buffalo in the Vosges. He was
moreover a coward, and went in such constant terror of assassination
that he always surrounded himself with a regular bodyguard.
See Krusch, “Zur Chronologie der merowingischen Könige,” in the Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, xxii. 451-490; Ulysse Chevalier, Bio-bibliographie (2nd ed.), s.v. “Guntram.” (C. Pf.)
GUNTUR, a town and district of British India, in the Madras
presidency. The town (pop. in 1901, 30,833) has a station on the
Bellary-Bezwada branch of the Southern Mahratta railway. It
is situated east of the Kondavid hills, and is very healthy.
It appears to have been founded in the 18th century by the
French. At the time of the cession of the Circars to the English
in 1765, Guntur was specially exempted during the life of Basalat
Jang, whose personal jagir it was. In 1788 it came into British
possession, the cession being finally confirmed in 1823. It has
an important trade in cotton, with presses and ginning factories.
There is a second-grade college supported by the American
Lutheran Mission. Until 1859, Guntur was the headquarters of
a district of the same name, and in 1904 a new District of Guntur
was constituted, covering territory which till then had
been divided between Kistna and Nellore. Area, 5733 sq. m.
The population on this area in 1901 was 1,490,635. The district
is bounded on the E. and N. by the river Kistna; in the W. a
considerable part of the boundary is formed by the Gundlakamma
river. The greater part consists of a fertile plain irrigated by
canals from the Kistna, and producing cotton, rice and other
crops.
GUPTA, an empire and dynasty of northern India, which
lasted from about A.D. 320 to 480. The dynasty was founded by
Chandragupta I., who must not be confounded with his famous
predecessor Chandragupta Maurya. He gave his name to the
Gupta era, which continued in use for several centuries, dating
